by Massive Voodoo

by Massive Voodoo

well, holiday season is at the doorstep. Knock! Knock!
Christmas quality time ahead - with family, friends, loved ones, pets and hopefully a little relaxation time to calm down at the end of 2015.

We wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a good switch in a healthy 2016!

Massive Voodoo will turn quiet for a couple of days, but what is Christmas without gifts?Of course MV got a little gift for all our blog readers, our supporters, our friends, all the jungle painters outthere, miniature lovers and proud geeks! Our way to say thank you for a great 2015 on MV with you all. A year with the finished Bananalicious 2, a year with ups and downs, sun and rain, a year with beautiful events, a year with many friends, a year with much color, a year with many painting seminars and classes worldwide, a year with a freshly new renovated studio, a year with many private coachings, a year with many painted and sculpted models and a year with many blogposts of course. Thank you for being with us!

Maybe you can remember MV's year of the painter, which happened in 2014.A year packed with great articles about miniature painting, weekly article votes, journeys through magnificant and fascinating miniature projects, articles beyond miniature painting to train your skill as a painter, not only a miniature painter and much more. A massive year it was. Here you can find an overview what happened via MV's year of the painter.

Our Christmas gift is this - we hope you like i:

All the best and enjoy your holidays!May the force be with you! Your MV-Team

We decided to open up a small Random Prize Pool, where everyone who enters the contest gets a chance to win one prize, randomly. Everyone can only win one random prize, not more. We will throw some more stuff into the pool, but we are not going crazy like we did with Bananalicious 2.
The first two additions to the pool are:

Random Prize Pool #01
A Voodoo Doll for you to use however you see fit. The describtion is in german and it says the doll is to be aimed at your family members, for example a mother in law or evil uncles and such. However you use it, please know it is just a joke, not real. If you got a problem with your family members by all means talk it out.

Random Prize Pool #02
We keep traditions alive and hand out a REEF 2016 calender for one of you lucky winners.

Random Prize Pool #03
Recently Roman showed in an article how to use cars in 28 mm projects. Now one of you who takes part in the contest can win exactly the same car Roman is using in one of his projects right now. You can win the original packed car, not the project of course.

Random Prize Pool #04
Win a true MV Jungle Surprise Box filled with crazy stuff you might need or won't need. It is indeed special and full of surprises!

More to come!Now back to your car! The engine does not forgive!Praise it!

by Massive Voodoo

by Massive Voodoo

Good
Monday Morning massive Jungle,

today we got something special for our readers.
To inspire, to build, to convert, to have fun. It's about MV's and Secret Weapon's recent release:MV Insta-Bases.

First we want to show you some of these cool Bases in action with painted miniatures on top.
We start with a cool miniature from our friends from Marrow Productions, on top ofTemple Ruins Insta-Base 01:

Second we got an Infinity Miniature on a "converted version" of Industrial Ruins Insta-Base 02:

Both projects painted by Roman.
He also takes this article in his hands to explain to you how you can easily make your Insta-Bases unique with simple techniques:

CONVERTING MV INSTA-BASES

During the recent Material Unpacked (Mu75) we showed you how you can use the MV Insta Bases, which in fact is rather simple with great effect. As we said this is a step by step we will show these steps from the beginning:

Take the Insta Base, throw some superglue on it's bottom side (rather too much!). Do not place it on top of the wooden plinth as it will suck in your superglue in a second.

Press the superglue-drowned Insta-Base on top of your plinth. It is good if the superglue gets pushed out on the edges.

Now use your accelerator to make the superglue hard in a second.

Next is using sandpaper to make the edges smooth again.

Sanding, sanding, sanding.

Result should be a sharp edge to get the best look for your Insta-Base.

Now to the conversion part. In fact Roman wants to make this Insta-Base unique and a little different. He decided to make the column a little taller. We need column parts, you can get the white plaster ones which were used here at PK-Pro.

Glueing the full column would look stupid, so the added column should also recieve a cut to look good on the already half cut one on the base. If you use your blade for such work you will just make the white plaster crack uncontrolled.

Rather use a small saw and you will recieve a sharp cut.

Now use superglue again to build up your column. Some minor stone parts were attached to theInsta Bases groundwork. Always remember, if something falls off and its heavy it stays on the ground. Looking at the edges, Roman should give it a little bit more sanding time, eh?

Place a miniature for a test:

Prime it and paint it!

We got another example.
Now we use Industrial Ruins Insta-Base 02 to do a little conversion work.Instabase is glued to the plinth in step one.

In step two Roman takes some more wasteland stuff and some soil to place it. He found those cool plastic bags by Pardulon in resin and decided to add some too.

Glue, glue, glue and soil ...

Now to the edges of the base. Superglue and accelerator once more.

Base is ready for priming and painting.

Well, that's it for today.
Of course there are endless options how you can simply change the appearence of your Insta-Base. Next thing in line for the Instabases is a painting video demonstration.
We hope you enjoyed this journey and we are looking forward to see your unique Insta-Bases.You can get yours at Secret Weapon Miniatures!

The class covers several interesting topics I like to talk about, for example a better understanding of painting skintones, learning the magic of painting white and black, learning to paint tattoos, painting a face, advanced light theory and color theory. Even some basing composition will be learned and this only on a gaming base. All in 28 mm. Much to learn you see. These two ladies are the two versions the students can work on. One Wasteland Raider or a Troll Slayer version.

In fact both models are not the same. The Troll Slayer is Version A (non-naked breasts) and the Wasteland Raider is version B (naked breasts). The Wasteland Raider recieved two minor conversions: A different weapon head and an attached skull face plate to her left shoulder.

I really enjoyed changing the topic of this miniature with these minor conversions, but what I enjoyed the most was painting her ripped jeans parts. This was not sculpted but painted and thick color was used to make it even three dimensional. Hah!

Haydn, the Wasteland Raider

Hasslefree, 28 mnm

Let me know what you think of her or if you got any questions via comments

by Massive Voodoo

Good Morning Jungle,

well, MV will turn a little quiet after this post. Why you might ask?
During the upcoming weekend Raffa and Roman, both are moving and everyone who ever moved flats or a house might know how crazy it can be. MV tries to be back as soon as possible, but you never know until you how much stuff there is to do.

Meanwhile another finished miniature, well, not a full miniature, just a face.

Roman had a private coaching recently with Michael from Austria and their topic was a) doing the switch from nice tapletop gaming miniature painting to display painting and b) the great magic that is painting skintones and a face.

This was one of Roman's explanational pieces during the private coaching. Just a face, but one Roman already painted in the private coaching with Jens a while back. This time he truely was inspired by a game he recently enjoys:

A Fallout Face

from a guy who just crawls through the Fallout

Size of this head is ppffff no idea.
Let's say Roman's upper part of his thumb? No idea and it doesn't matter.

by Roman aka jar

by Bene aka Benji

Hello dear readers!

Bene here again :)
Today I want to show you a
miniature I painted for a little private side project.

Because the
Tolkien universe was my start into tabletop gaming, and later into
painting and all the more or less artsy stuff I do nowadays I sometimes have the urge to
return and paint a miniature from the LotR or Hobbit range. For this
little project I decided that it should be Tauriel, Legolas and maybe
Thranduil.

And here is Tauriel, which made the start for the project.
Legolas will also follow soon.

Well,
I hope you like her. As usual, I have also uploaded her to putty and
paint, so if you want to, you are welcome to check her out over there
and also leave a vote. Just click here.

by Massive Voodoo

Hey Jungle people,

Maybe... we have just the right Christmas gift for you!
Following you find an update on MV's - Painted Miniatures, for Sale area.
If you want to make one of these creations yours please follow the instructions available.

We want to thank you for your support in our art and craft by buying a painted miniature from us!

by Massive Voodoo

Welcome jungle people,

welcome to another Material Unpacked here on Massvive Voodoo.
This time it is about light, in fact about a specific painting LED painting lamp.

First of all if you look at the MV Studio table and the connected lamps there it - indeed - seems a little crazy. Our upper light bars deliver big area light, while the lamps below deliver more focused workspace light. Crazy, yes, but professional.

We are pretty sure that many of you who own a TriTube are happy with it, nothing wrong with this.
Roman had his issues with this lamp. And only Roman. Roman got affected by it's light frequence and after a little while painting under it he recieved horrible headaches. And only Roman, we do not know of any other painter so far. Well, it's not that Roman needs a good lamp for painting. He really got sad when he sold his TriTube, but found another solution without headaches.

TriTube

Always great light, always room for stickers, always room for fun with pattafix and stupid ideas.
The TriTube delivers light from ... now guess what ... three light tubes and in fact makes your workspace bright and works wonderful. The lamp does not turn hot and the tubes are also energy-saving ones. The TriTube has one black button for switch on/off.

The TriTube comes with plenty of fixation options and is a great lamp for every miniature painter.

Plus of the TriTube:
- Sturdy, high end quality lamp
- great light
- many fixation options
- initially cheaper than the LED Version
- Offers a lot of room for Massive Voodoo Stickers

Downsides of the TriTube:
- Roman gets headaches
- The Tubes die after some years, you have to buy new ones (ask Raffa)
- heavy Lamp for carrying around
- cabel is fixed to the lamp
- heavy, big lamp

LED Version

Well, Battlefield-Berlin and other suppliers offer a newer version of this lamp recently. It looks kind of the same, but it ain't. It's packed with 84 white LED lamps. Roman does not get headaches from it.

It's a little tricky to make proper photos of 84 LED lamps, well here is a collage:

The design of this LED lamp is a little slimer compared to the TriTube. Not a huge difference, but a difference in weight in the end. It also offers the same amount of fixation options than the TriTube.

Difference in the cable connection here: While the TriTube gets connected via cable which is fixed to the lamp the LED version has a plug-in to it's frame. Feels ultimately like future in a second.
Also the LED version offers not only a futuristical cable plug-in, it also offers a futuristic console, where you switch it on/off, where you can dim the lights or push them stronger or where you can use only one bank of LEDs, means 42 (well, this number seems to be the answer to everything :D). Maybe.

Both compared to eachother. You can see the design of the LED is more slim. We are not talking about the material here, as both lamps come in high-end manufacturing quality.

Plus of the LED Version:
- Sturdy, high end quality lamp
- great light
- many fixation options
- cable is easier to fix
- not so heavy, easier transportations
- LEDs will not die in the next years, so you do not have to rebuy tubes
- Console for maximum light control
- Roman gets no headaches

Downsides of the LED Version:
- a little more expensive, initially, but you do not have to buy new tubes

- the console and dimmable light can be confusing at first until you get used to it
- less space for Massive Voodoo stickers

Overall Impressions:
- If you are an owner of the TriTube and if you are happy with it and do not get any sort of headaches there is no urgent need to get the LED version of this lamp.

- If your tubes of the TriTube died already several times and you might want to avoid to buy new ones once in a while you could think of investing in the LED version.

- If you do not own any of these two we highly recommend the LED version for your miniature painting future. It's a good investment and even the higher price is reasonable for you do not have to buy new tubes.

- If you have headaches while painting, think that the reason could be the TriTube lamp, not your painting skills. Get the LED version.

- Of course there are other lamps on the market, we can not give you tips or ideas on those as we can only tell you about what we use.

Where to buy?You can buy these lamps at several different shops, check your local store or buy directly at Battlefield-Berlin as they have tons of miniature candy on offer too:

Search Massive Voodoo

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Welcome to the Jungle...

... MASSIVE VOODOO’s jungle, where some apes share their thoughts and ideas around their beloved passion, the hobby of miniature painting and sculpting.

Feel welcome to come and check the jungle for tons of articles, interesting tutorials, creative competitions and the simple joy of happy painting hidden behind every tree. We hope that everyone finds their own banana in here, if not do not hesitate to ask the apes. We are more than happy for you to post in the comments section to help turn this jungle into the lush, overgrown painting corner we hope it will become.